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Monday, January 26, 2009

Glico Cratz- Alpen Salz and Chicken Flavor

Cratz are a snack made by Glico that are what the Japanese call Otsumami- which are snacks that are meant to be eaten with a beer or other alcoholic drink Which is why there is a picture of a nice cold beer on the package, I admit before reading the product description I thought that these were a beer flavored snack.I would also like to give a shout out to the cool people at Jlist.com for being kind enough to have sent the Cratz to me.

The Cratz look like quarter inch slabs of hard bread stick- you know the kind of bread sticks you see in any scene with a stereotyped Italian restaurant (but are always absent from actual Italian restaurants. The pieces are covered in large specks of salt and seasoning and there are also whole roasted almonds in the mix.

The both smell like poultry seasoning. If you have ever had some Chicken flavored Ramon soup and tasted the seasoning packet innards straight that is what the flavoring on the Cratz tastes like. On it's own it's a bit overbearing- but c'mon it's not like you are really going to sit at home or at your local Moe's licking off the seasoning and ignoring the cracker or nuts. The cracker- which the website calls a pretzel reminds me a lot of a very basic cracker, which is perfect for this because it let's the seasoning take center stage, adding some balance to it. This is going to sound weird but I bet you could make a kick ass stuffing with this- I say this because after eating more of the Cratz it hit me that while the seasoning on it's own might be much like Ramen with combined with the cracker it is pretty darn close to Stove Top Stuffing. The almonds were my favorite part. They are crisp and salty and the seasoning was just way to good on them. Since these came directly from Japan there is no English on the label so I am not sure what exactly is in them but I can tell you there is definitely sage. I never realized how well sage and almonds went together until now.